New Delhi: Delhi High Court on Monday dismissed the interim bail plea of one of the 17 convicted Uttarakhand cops, facing life imprisonment for killing a 22-year-old MBA student in a fake encounter in Dehradun in 2009.
A bench of justices GS Sistani and Sangita Dhingra Sehgal declined the relief sought by convict Vikas Chander Baluni, to attend his sister's wedding.
"The appellant cannot be granted interim bail at this stage," the court said, adding that the CBI had also opposed his prayer. Baluni had sought interim bail for a month from February 14 onwards for his sister's wedding.
The trial court had on June 9 last year awarded life imprisonment to 17 Uttarakhand policemen for the murder of the student, Ranbir Singh, on July 3, 2009.
One cop was acquitted of charges of murder and conspiracy but was convicted for falsifying records.
The trial court had convicted and awarded life term to S K Jaiswal, G D Bhatt, Rajesh Bisht, Neeraj Kumar, Nitin Chauhan, Chander Mohan Singh Rawat -- all sub-inspectors -- as well as constable Ajeet Singh for killing the victim by firing 29 bullets at him from close range.
Eight other constables and two drivers were convicted and awarded life term for offences under section 120B (criminal conspiracy) read with sections 364 (kidnapping to murder) and 302 (murder) of IPC.
Jaspal Singh Gosain -- the then head operator at city control room -- was acquitted of these charges.
Of the 18 policemen, some were from police station Dalanwala, others from police station Nehru Colony and some from Special Operation Group (SOG), all of Dehradun city.
The place of incident was Ladpur forest which fell under the jurisdiction of police station Raipur in Dehradun.
